Breaking news: Today marks the start of the annual “Running of the Bulls” portion of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain. This past weekend, another annual event took place: the annual PETA protest of the bloodsport. For 14 years, PETA has been organizing a protest of the controversial “festivities” that take place during the second week of July every year, when people from all over the world gather in Northern Spain to run through the streets with bulls. While this may seem innocuous enough, the truth is that the bulls are running to their death: the “race” ends at a bullfighting arena where, as in any bullfight, the spectacle only ends with the brutal slaughter of the animals.

The centerpiece of this year’s protest, as in many recent years, was a shocking visual image conveyed by human bodies. Over 100 protesters stripped bare to their underwear, covered themselves in red paint, and laid in the form of a “river of blood” in front of Pamplona’s bullfighting arena. Three unpainted protesters sat in front of the “river” wearing horns and holding signs that read “Pamplona’s Streets are Stained with Bulls’ Blood.” AnimaNaturalis, a Spanish animal rights group that partnered with PETA for the protest, tweeted that 6 bulls will die each day of the Festival, which lasts from July 6th to 14th.

Original article and image source: http://www.peta.org.uk/living/pamplona2015-running-of-the-bulls-protest/